In radio transmitters for broadcast, cellular, and satellite systems, the power amplifier (PA) in the transmitter has to be very linear, in addition to being able to simultaneously amplify many radio channels (frequencies) or independent user data channels, spread across a fairly wide bandwidth. It also has to do this efficiently, to reduce power consumption, need for cooling, and to increase its longevity. High linearity is required since nonlinear amplifiers would cause leakage of interfering signal energy between channels and distortion within each channel.
The amplitude probability density of a mix of sufficiently many independent radio frequency (RF) channels, or of a multi-user CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) signal, tends to be close to a Rayleigh distribution having a large peak-to-average power ratio. Since a conventional linear radio frequency power amplifier generally has an efficiency proportional to its output amplitude, its average efficiency is very low for such signals.
In response to the low efficiency of conventional linear power amplifiers for wide bandwidth signals with large peak-to-average power ratio, the Chireix outphasing method [1] has been suggested. The term “outphasing”, which is the key method in Chireix and LINC amplifiers (LINC=Linear Amplification using Nonlinear Components), generally means the method of obtaining amplitude modulation by combining phase-modulated constant-amplitude signals from two transistors.
Furthermore, a three-transistor amplifier (or more generally an odd number of transistors) using the outphasing principle is described in [2].
There is often a need for higher efficiency than what is obtainable with two-amplifier Chireix amplifiers. The maximum efficiency for these amplifiers is limited to a certain value, which depends on the signal amplitude distribution. Adding more amplifiers to the Chireix amplifier, as suggested in [2], has so far been unsuccessful in increasing the efficiency. In fact, the amplifier described in [2] is less efficient than a conventional Chireix amplifier with modified drive signals, as described in [6].